On which I write about the books I read, science, science fiction, fantasy, and anything else that I want to. Currently trying to read and comment upon every novel that has won the Hugo and International Fantasy awards.

Saturday, January 3, 1970

By 1957, the International Fantasy Award was in its death throes. The last International Fantasy Award was awarded that year to The Lord of the Rings as Best Fiction Book. The Best Non-Fiction Book award had last been given in 1953 and the award for Best Fiction Book was not even handed out in 1956. In 1957 the only work nominated was The Lord of the Rings. By 1958, the International Fantasy Award was defunct. Oddly, no Hugo Award for Best Novel was awarded in 1957 - in fact, no Hugo Awards of any kind for fiction were bestowed that year.

The 1957 International Fantasy Award for Best Fiction Book was technically given to The Lord of the Rings as a whole, which is appropriate given that Tolkien always regarded it as a single book. However, for publishing reasons the book was divided into three volumes, and as a result I have listed each volume separately here.

The 1955 International Fantasy Award field of nominees for Best Fiction Book was also strong, and either book would have been a fine winner. This is one year in which the International Fantasy Award clearly got the better of the Hugo Awards, which selected the decidedly mediocre book They'd Rather Be Right by Mark Clifton and Frank Riley as its 1955 Best Novel winner.

The existence of the International Fantasy Award for this year coupled with the fact that there was something of a slate of candidates for this award gives us a valuable eye on the history of the Hugo Award. Even though the Hugo Awards did not maintain records of nominees from years before 1959, this slate of ballots allows us to see what books might have been nominated along with They'd Rather Be Right for the 1955 Hugo Award for Best Novel. And looking at these two novels we can shake our heads at the 1955 voters and wonder: what the Hell were they thinking?

Despite the fact that the 1954 field for Best Fiction Book for the International Fantasy Award consisted of only two books, it was one of the strongest fields the award ever had.Both More Than Human and The Demolished Man are excellent books, and either would have been a creditable winner.

One interesting note is that both of the books nominated for the award focus upon telepathic powers, but both approach the issue from opposite ends. While The Demolished Man focuses on a world in which telepaths are an established reality and have been mostly integrated into society, and indeed almost dominate some segments of society, More Than Human focuses on the emergence of these abilities, which in the book is taking place on the very fringes of human civilization, in the shadows and corners of the world, among the discarded refuse of humanity.

The nominee field for the 1953 International Fantasy Award Best Fiction Book was pretty strong, but the winning nominee, Clifford D. Simak's City, was clearly the best of the bunch.

This is also the last year in which the award for Best Non-Fiction Book was awarded. Why the selection committee decided to discontinue giving the Non-Fiction Book Award is, like so many other things about the International Fantasy Award, a complete mystery. Given that the award seems to have sputtered to a slow death over the next couple years, perhaps the enthusiasm for this award in general was waning and the Non-Fiction Book category was just the canary that fell off its perch first. Looking back though the hazy mists of time, we simply have no way to know.

The International Fantasy Award best fiction book winner for 1952, Fancies and Goodnights, was a somewhat unusual selection in that it was not a novel, but rather a collection of short stories. Of the two other books up for the award, The Illustrated Man was also a collection of short fiction, a testament to the central place short fiction had in the science fiction genre at the time.

Of the three books, both The Day of the Triffids and The Illustrated Man have had more lasting impact than the winning entry. Although Fancies and Goodnights is a good book, and the fact that it took home the prize in 1952 is not particularly shocking, in retrospect, it just isn't of the same quality as its competition.

The Best Non-Fiction Book was the excellent Exploration of Space by Arthur C. Clarke.Writing at a time before the first artificial satellite had been launched into space, Clarke presciently opined upon the future development of space travel leading to a mission to the Moon. The only thing Clarke did not predict was that the Moon race would become a football of Cold War politics, and thus imagined that we would proceed into space in a much more sensible manner than we actually did.

Like many other things about the 1951 International Fantasy Awards, the ballot is a mystery. The only thing that is known for certain is that Earth Abides by George R. Stewart and The Conquest of Space by Willy Ley and Chesley Bonestell won the awards in the two categories that year, but who the other nominees were, or even if there were other nominees, is unknown.

Given that the awards handed out this year were the first science fiction or fantasy awards bestowed, it seems critical in retrospect that they be handed to deserving works, and on that score the International Fantasy Award voters seem to have done a good job. Both Earth Abides and The Conquest of Space were good selections, and seem to have weathered the tests of time fairly well.

Friday, January 2, 1970

Comments: I was born in 1969, and I'm pleased to say that in this the fourth year of the Nebula Awards, women began seriously making their mark in the world of science fiction. After being nominated in 1968, both Anne McCaffrey and Kate Wilhelm followed up in 1969 by winning Nebula Awards. Not only that, Joanna Russ secured a nomination for her novel Picnic on Paradise. Sadly, despite this strong performance, these were the only three Nebula nominations garnered by women in 1969. As with the Hugo Awards, it seemed that a woman had to be truly outstanding just to get nominated, leading to the odd distribution that resulted in a reasonable number of female Nebula winners, but relatively few Nebula nominees.

In a kind of quirky development that is probably only of interest to fans of obscure trivia like me, the science fiction writer H.H. Hollis was nominated for two Nebula nominations in 1969. He didn't win for either of his nominated stories, but the interesting thing is that these were the only two nominations he received in his entire writing career for any kind of writing award.

Other Nominees:Black Easter by James BlishDo Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. DickThe Masks of Time by Robert SilverbergPast Master by R.A. LaffertyPicnic on Paradise by Joanna RussStand on Zanzibar by John Brunner

Comments: Unlike the Hugo Awards, which were a sausage fest for almost two decades, the Nebula Awards began recognizing female authors fairly quickly, nominating both Anne McCaffrey and Kate Wilhelm in the Award's third year of existence. The comparison is perhaps a bit unfair - after all, the Nebula Awards were created later, and in an environment in which cultural attitudes had shifted considerably - but it is an indication that then Nebula Awards established themselves as being more female friendly quite early, and in many ways they still are.

An interesting point about the 1968 Nebula nominees is just how many authors garnered multiple nominations. Samuel R. Delany was nominated three times (and pulled off the impressive feat of securing two wins), and Roger Zelazny was also nominated three times, while Robert Silverberg and Fritz Leiber both secured two nominations. It seems that while attempting to make the awards more "literary" in tone, those making nominations for the Nebulas more or less implicitly stated that the literary talent in the science fiction field was concerntrated in a handful of authors. On another note, it is interesting to observe that there was a substantial amount of overlap between the nominees for the Nebula Awards and the contemporaneous Hugo Award nominations, which seems to be somewhat counter to the Nebula Award's claim to being more literary than the Hugo.

Comments: After the incredibly long and unwieldy nominating lists of the 1966 Nebula awards, in 1967 the SFWA tightened up the process so that the ballot was a more manageable size. But with the ballot cut down, it becomes glaringly apparent that in 1967 the field of science fiction was very much an all-boys club. Out of fourteen nominated works, not one of them was written by a woman. Despite putatively being aimed at honoring a more "literary" group of works than the Hugo Awards, insofar as rampant sexism is concerned, the Nebulas started out more or less on equal footing with the Hugos.

On the plus side, however, the Nebulas did what the Hugo Awards seem to have had trouble doing: bestowing an award on another writer when Heinlein has been nominated as well. In fact, the Nebula jury awarded two other authors over Heinlein in the Best Novel category this year, honoring both Samuel R. Delany's Babel-17 and Daniel Keyes' Flowers for Algernon with a tied first place result.

Comments: In 1966 the SFWA launched a new science fiction award to complement the already extant Hugo Awards. Unlike the fan-voted Hugo Awards, the newly created Nebula Awards are decided by a jury of peers selected from the ranks of the SFWA, with the intent of making them a more "literary" award. Whether this intent has been fulfilled is unclear - there is significant overlap between the winners of the Nebula Award and the winners of the Hugo Award - but the categories are clearly more literary oriented, with no accolades provided for editors or artists, and only the occasional recognition handed out for superior accomplishment in dramatic presentation.

Although the Nebula Awards were much better organized at their outset than the Hugo Awards had been when they were first established, there were still some kinks to work out. Because there was no established rule for creating a nominee list, in this nominating cycle, anyone who received even one nominations was placed on the ballot, resulting an an unusually long list of nominees for this year.

Other Nominees:102 H-Bombs by Thomas M. DischThe Adventure of the Extraterrestrial by Mack ReynoldsAt the Institute by Norman KaganThe Decision Makers by Joseph GreenThe Earth Merchants by Norman KaganFour Ghosts In Hamlet by Fritz LeiberGoblin Night by James H. SchmitzHalf a Loaf by R.C. FitzpatrickLaugh Along with Franz by Norman KaganThe Life of Your Time by Poul Anderson (writing as Michael Karageorge)Maiden Voyage by J.W. SchutzThe Masculinist Revolt by William TennMasque of the Red Shift by Fred SaberhagenPlanet of Forgetting by James H. SchmitzShall We Have a Little Talk? by Robert SheckleyThe Shipwrecked Hotel James Blish and Norman L. KnightSmall One by E. Clayton McCartyVanishing Point by Jonathan Brand

Other Nominees:Balanced Ecology by James H. SchmitzBecalmed in Hell by Larry NivenA Better Mousehole by Edgar PangbornBetter Than Ever by Alex KirsCalling Dr. Clockwork by Ron GoulartCome to Venus Melancholy by Thomas M. DischComputers Don't Argue by Gordon R. DicksonCyclops by Fritz LeiberDevil Car by Roger ZelaznyThe Eight Billion by Richard WilsonEyes Do More Than See by Isaac Asimov (reviewed in Robot Dreams)A Few Kindred Spirits by John ChristopherFounding Father by Isaac AsimovGame by Donald BarthelmeThe Good New Days by Fritz LeiberThe House the Blakeneys Built by Avram DavidsonIn Our Block by R.A. LaffertyInside Man by H.L. GoldKeep Them Happy by Robert RohrerA Leader for Yesteryear by Mack ReynoldsLord Moon by Jane BeauclerkThe Mischief Maker by Richard OlinOf One Mind by James A. DurhamOver the River and Through the Woods by Clifford D. SimakThe Peacock King by Larry McCombs and Ted WhiteSlow Tuesday Night by R.A. LaffertySouvenir by J.G. BallardThough a Sparrow Fall by Scott NicholsUncollected Works by Lin CarterWrong-Way Street by Larry Niven

Thursday, January 1, 1970

Comments: In 1969, we see how far Star Trek had fallen by the time its third season rolled around. In 1968, the show completely dominated the Best Dramatic Presentation category, monopolizing every nomination slot. In 1969, not only did no episode of Star Trek win the Hugo, no episode was even nominated for the Hugo. On the one hand, it would have been difficult for any episode of Star Trek to win against 2001: A Space Odyssey, but on the other hand, to not even be nominated when your competition includes fluff like The Yellow Submarine is truly embarrassing.

This was generally a good year for the Hugo Awards. Every winning piece of fiction was good, and some of them are truly stellar. Several of the losing stories are brilliant as well, including Samuel R. Delany's Nova, and Larry Niven's All the Myriad Ways.

Comments: In 1968, Anne McCaffrey won a Hugo Award for her Novella Weyr Search, breaking up the science fiction boys club and becoming the first woman to win the award, tying Philip José Farmer for the honor. Elsewhere, the Hugo Awards proceeded mostly in their normal fashion. Roger Zelazny, Fritz Lieber, and Harlan Ellison took home another statuette each. Most of the nominations were dominated by the usual suspects.

This year is somewhat notable for two reasons other than Anne McCaffrey's historic first. In the Best Dramatic Presentation category, Star Trek absolutely dominated the award, as all five of the nominees were Star Trek episodes, and the winning entry was the Harlan Ellison written City on the Edge of Forever. This year was also the first year in which there were nominations withdrawn from consideration, as Jack Gaughan withdrew his name from consideration for Best Fan Artist, and both Harlan Ellison and Alexei Panshin with drew their names from consideration as Best Fan Writer. These three nominations are all bizarre. Gaughan had won the award for Best Professional Artist in 1967, and took home that award again this year. How he got nominated for Best Fan Artist at the same time is a complete mystery. Panshin won a Nebula Award for his novel Rite of Passage in 1968, so his nomination seems somewhat strange, but it is at least defensible on the ground that he didn't publish much professionally prior to this year. Ellison's nomination for Best Fan Writer, on the other hand, is simply bizarre. Ellison had already won a Hugo Award before, and took home two in this year as well. The only explanation I can come up with is some of those doing the nominating thought the award was for Best Fan Favorite, and not Best Fan Writer.

Comments: In 1967 Robert A. Heinlein won his fourth Best Novel Hugo Award for the The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, a work of libertarian science fiction that was markedly different from his previous three Best Novel wins. In fact, the most consistent thing about the four novels that gave Heinlein his Hugo wins is that they are all so very different from one another. Also notable is that the field of Best Novel nominees included Daniel Keyes' expanded treatment of his Hugo winning story Flowers for Algernon. Another interesting quirk of the balloting for 1967 is that despite not winning any Hugos in this year, Roger Zelazny had three different stories nominated, a fairly impressive achievement.

1967 also saw the return of the Best Dramatic Presentation Award, and the first appearance of Star Trek on the Hugo ballots, with the series taking home the Hugo for The Menagerie two part story cobbled together out of bits and pieces of the rejected pilot episode The Cage. The only drawback to this win by Star Trek is that to claim the trophy it had to beat out the excellent movie adaptation of the Ray Bradbury classic Fahrenheit 451. This year also saw the introduction of two new categories: Best Fan Writer, won by soon-to-be-professional writer Alexei Panshin, and Best Fan Artist, won by Jack Gaughan, who pulled off the unusual feat of also winning the 1967 Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist.

Other Finalists:Babel-17 by Samuel R. DelanyDay of the Minotaur by Thomas Burnett SwannFlowers for Algernon by Daniel KeyesToo Many Magicians by Randall GarrettThe Witches of Karres by James H. Schmitz

Other Finalists:The Alchemist by Charles L. HarnessApology to Inky by Robert M. Green, Jr.Call Him Lord by Gordon R. DicksonThe Eskimo Invasion by Hayden HowardFor a Breath I Tarry by Roger ZelaznyThe Manor of Roses by Thomas Burnett SwannAn Ornament to His Profession by Charles L. HarnessThis Moment of the Storm by Roger Zelazny

Other Finalists:Comes Now the Power by Roger ZelaznyDelusions for a Dragon Slayer by Harlan EllisonLight of Other Days by Bob ShawMan In His Time by Brian W. AldissMr. Jester by Fred SaberhagenRat Race by Raymond F. JonesThe Secret Place by Richard McKenna

Comments: 1966 was the first of three times that the Best Novel voting resulted in a tie, with the award being shared by Frank Herbert's classic Dune and Roger Zelazny's lesser known but equally as good . . . And Call Me Conrad. In a quirk of the voting rules, Heinlein's novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress was nominated for this year, and then was allowed to be nominated in the next year as well (it won the Best Novel award in 1967). Harlan Ellison won the first of his many Hugos for the short story "Repent Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman. 1966 was also the year that the Hugo Awards got some serious competition, as the Nebula Awards were born this year, and both Dune and Repent Harlequin! took home Nebulas as well as their Hugos.

This year is also notable for the appearance of one category, and the absence of another. In this voting cycle the Best All-Time Series award was handed out, with the award going to Isaac Asimov's Foundation series. After this one year, the All-Time Series award was retired and has never been awarded again. The absent category was the somewhat inconsistently bestowed Best Dramatic Presentation Award, although the potential field of nominees appears to have been somewhat thin - the best candidates seem to have been films like The Doctor and the Daleks, The City Under the Sea, or Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet, which is an uninspiring bunch to be sure.

Comments: 1965 was not so much an unusual year for the Hugo Awards as it was an unaccountably bland one. Following a year in which the best novel nominees included Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Clifford D. Simak, Robert A. Heinlein, Andre Norton, and Frank Herbert, this year's nominees were somewhat less notable, and all of the books nominated were not even the best work by that particular author. In effect, the Best Novel field this year was sort of like the B team showing up and bringing their own B efforts to the table.

On a more positive note, the Best Dramatic Presentation Award (technically the Best Special Drama Award) returned after a year's hiatus and was won by Dr. Strangelove. Best Publisher returned for the second (and last) time, and was won by Ballantine, possibly on the strength of having published two of the nominees in the Best Novel category.

Comments: The list of 1964 Hugo winners has one of my favorite story titles: Poul Anderson's No Truce With Kings. Other than that, it was a fairly typical year with usual suspects like Clifford D. Simak and John W. Campbell, Jr. taking home the hardware.

The one oddity is that the Best Dramatic Presentation Hugo Award was dropped completely, but only for this one year. Instead the Hugo voters were asked to choose the Best Science Fiction Publisher, certainly a difficult task in the best of years. The voters selected Ace, but there seems little rationale for choosing them over their competition other than the fact that they published one of the books nominated for Best Novel (Andre Norton's Witch World). The Best Publisher category was thankfully short-lived, and disappeared in a few years never to return.

Comments: Novels in which the Nazis win World War II are fairly common in the science fiction subgenre of alternate history, so it was somewhat inevitable that one would win the Hugo Award at some point. To prevent this from being a dull selection, the voters picked Philip K. Dick's somewhat surreal version of the story The Man in the High Castle as the Best Novel winner this year, beating out a decent but unspectacular field.

The only real surprise of the year was the fact that the Best Dramatic Presentation votes once again produced a "No Winner" result, the second time in the short history of the award that this had happened. Granted, the field was not particularly strong, but The Day the Earth Caught Fire was probably the most deserving winner among the nominees. This "No Winner" result marked the end of The Twilight Zone's three year winning streak, and given the indifferent quality of the fourth season, it was probably not an undeserved loss.

Comments: In 1962 Heinlein won the Best Novel award for the third time overall, and the second time in three years. And his win this year was for a novel so diametrically opposed to Starship Troopers in tone and content, that I always wonder whether people who assert that Heinlein was an advocate for fascism have actually read more than the one book of his.

In other categories, Brian W. Aldiss won for Best Short Story with Hothouse, which was probably more than adequate consolation for losing Best New Writer of 1958 to "No Winner". John Campbell added yet another trophy to his shelf for editing Analog Science Fact/Science Fiction, and The Twilight Zone picked up its third, and last, consecutive win for Best Dramatic Presentation.

Other Nominees:Dark Universe by Daniel F. GalouyeThe Fisherman (aka Time Is the Simplest Thing) by Clifford D. SimakSecond Ending by James WhiteSense of Obligation (aka Planet of the Damned) by Harry Harrison

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